The goal of our paper is to investigate the intensity and quality of the cooperation between class teachers and special education assistants in inclusive school settings.   Since the pan-European commencement of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2006), schools face manifold challenges regarding the inclusion of students with disabilities into the regular teaching and learning systems. According to the UN Convention, the overall goal must lie in the establishment and maintenance of a learning environment that suits the needs of every student and provides equal opportunities for all (UN Convention, § 24).In order to achieve these goals, the cooperation of teachers – especially class teachers – and further educational personnel in schools seems to be vital (Meyer, 2016). This idea is not only plausible from a practical point of view, it is also in line with the essential assumptions made in different models of school effectiveness and improvement (Creemers & Kyriakides, 2008; Scheerens & Bosker, 1997), in which teacher cooperation is an important variable of school quality and school effectiveness. Accordingly, research concerning the preconditions, the organization, and the effects of teacher cooperation has grown substantially in the past (Fussangel, 2008). However, the major body of research regarding cooperative practices and methods in school is mostly limited to the cooperation between teachers. Research focusing on the preconditions, organization, and effects of a successful inter-professional cooperation, i.e. on the cooperation between different occupational groups in schools, is only emerging gradually, especially when it comes to questions about the cooperation between regular (class) teachers and special education assistants (internationally also known as teaching assistants for students with special needs).      First results from international research indicate, that teachings assistants for students with special needs can indeed help in promoting the learning and development of students with special needs (Farrell, Alborz, Howes & Pearson, 2010). However, individual (case) studies show that teaching assistants seem to suffer from certain degrees of role-confusion and hence need to be integrated into the professional structure of a school more consistently (e.g. Blatchford, Webster, Russell, 2012; Butt & Lowe, 2011; Fischer & Pleasants, 2012; Webster, Blatchford & Russell, 2013).      The aim of our study is threefold: (1) First we aim at adapting an established model of teacher cooperation developed by Fussangel (2008) to the context of the cooperation between teaching assistants for students with special needs on the one hand and class teachers on the other hand. (2) Subsequently, we focus on the development of appropriate instruments for measuring diverse aspects of the intensity and quality of the cooperation of teaching assistants and class teachers in inclusive school settings. Finally (3), we pursue the following research questions: (i) With whom do teaching assistants work together in an inclusive school setting and how do they evaluate the respective cooperation? (ii) How do teaching assistants and class teachers shape their cooperation in practice? In how far is the intensity and quality of cooperation connected to the evaluation of the teaching assistants’ job-related experiences? (iii) How strongly are teaching assistants integrated into the professional community of individual schools? Which factors are important for their integration?

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